How to start a garden? – Part I – Gardening Supplies

Like I have been postponing on writing a post on how to start a kitchen garden, I am sure few of you who are reading this have already postponed starting a garden of your own. Oh and I am sure you have plenty of valid reasons for postponing. Few people have lots of space both terrace and land and few like me have lots of passion but less space. It doesn’t matter. So if you have been toying with the idea of gardening and always wanted a push, here it is.. “Just get off your butt and start diggin!”

To start a vegetable garden, you need lots of stuff. Here is the list of things that you need to begin with.

Seeds/Plants [ Vegetables, Flowers]

Pots/Seedling trays

Potting mix/Compost [ Cocopeat, Perlite, Vermiculite]

Watering cans/sprayers

Fertilizers( Organic or Inorganic)

In this Part I of multipart series, I am going to share what you need to buy and where. I have spent hours and hours of phone calls/searching the net to find what I want. It is really frustrating to not get what we want and sometimes this can stop one from continuing gardening. Hence I thought I would first write a post on where to get what.

I will also try to put exact address/map where ever possible.

We will go through the list of items one by one.

Seeds/Plants

Fortunately In Bangalore, there are plenty of places that you get good quality seeds of different vegetables and flowers. Here we will see the list of places that sell them.

Garden Guru Store:

Store Timings: Morning : 9am-1pm

Evenings: 2pm-6pm

We are open on all days

Store Address:

Garden Guru Store

93/1 BTS Layout Road

Arekere, Bangalore 76

Phone: 080-42116217

Lalbagh:

It needs no introduction. It is a great landmark and to get there just call an auto and tell him to take to Lalbagh. Take the double road gate and after going little further inside Lalbagh, on your Left you can see NurseryMen Co-op. They sell all types of vegetable seeds and flower seeds. Vegetable seeds range from Rs 10 upto 100. You also get whole lot of accessories there. They have plastic pots, propagation trays, organic pesticides, Horse Manures, Compost, Neem cake, and a lot more. Make a visit once and you will return with goodies for your garden.

Potting Mix/Compost

You get good potting mixes in the following places

Garden Guru Store:

Accessories

You get all kinds of accessories like watering cans, sprayers, cutters secateurs, shovel, etc.

Hi GG,
I don’t know whether you got hydroton or not, but the address which I had given you earlier do not have it in the stock anymore, however I found the Ratanshi agro, Mumbai ( 022-23723296) imports it from Europe, I called them up and they told me that they can send it to you once they receive the MO for the same. Let me know if this works for you, if not I can send it to you.
-FG

Dear Geek,
You almost read my mind and have made this blog to suit my needs.
In past one week, I have been reading blogs and other websites with such information and collecting them in a word document.
In case you need I could mail it to you.
I shall take some of the information from your blog with your permission into the document.
You are doing a great job with such information sharing.
Thanks a lot

The way annadana.com operates is, you purchase a membership package from them ( like Homegardener, Marginal farmer, …) you get seeds as compliments. Say for homegardener package, they give 15 packets of seeds you choose. What is the quantity you are looking at?

Actually i have checked with annadana.com their seed packets contain 80 -100 seeds for tomatoes & brinjal & 500 seeds for lettuce way too much for me , i just want 5-10 seeds for toms -brinjal & may be 15 -20 seeds for lettuce

I couldn’t think of any vendor who sells only 5-10 seeds in india. In some markets, you might get seeds in loose.( There are few seed companies abroad that sell a pack of 15-20 seeds). Also, you need to consider the germination percentage of the seeds. Not all the seeds germinate. Usually it is about 70% but it is highly dependent on the variety, weather etc. You are better off joining with a friend and sharing the seeds.
gg

Dear GG,
Thanks a lot for all the information.Its very kind of you to share your knowledge with others.It will save a lot of time for me.I want to ask you a few questions regarding growing roses.
a.Can the soilless mix of cocoa peat vermiculite ,perlite be mixed with the soil
which you get from nurseries?
b.What is the minimum size of container for the rose plant?
c.Can organic fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer (rose mix) be used together for the same plant?
d.The potting mix is quite costly (Rs.45 per K.g).After how long repotting should be done?
Once again thanks for the information.

Thanks for the comment.
a) Mixing soilless mixture with soil will completely defeat the purpose soilless mix is for. Esp when Perlite and vermiculite is mixed with soil, they become mushy and they lose their waterholding and porosity property. Coco peat can be mixed with soil and it will losen the soil.
b) I have button roses in 6inch container and the bigger ones in 10″ dia and 12″ deep container.
c) Organic and Inorganic fertilizers can be mixed. Ensure they dont result in too much fertilizer being added.
d) Ideally, repotting is not something that need to be done periodically. It depends on the plant and the rate at which it grows. The sign that a pot needs repotting would be a) thick roots visible on the surface of the soil and roots come out through the water drainage hole. The plant will have pot bound roots.

hi GG, Glad to see you with very useful post. I’ve a news from my side as well, friend of mine (jayveer) purchased seeds in online -http://seedsandmore.net/ and trying few rare varieties of flowers. Latest update is, the seeds germinated well, just thought of sharing with you.
-MK

Hi,
I came via Bhagwad’s blog.
I appreciate your generosity to share the knowledge.
( I got rebuffed many times , when I sought some tips. I even searched for good mali, but could not get one where I live.. All I got was smug smiles.)
I am encouraged to use my terrace with kitchen garden plants this year..
Thanks.

Hi GG,
Your blog is very informative. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
I stay in mumbai, i want to start a balcony garden in my home.
Where can i get all the required materials in Mumbai?
Please help.

Hi gg,
your blog is fantastic! For a long time i have been thinking of gardening, but did not know how to start with. My few attempts to grow spinach and few other things were not successful. The soil in the pot will become too wet, pests leave holes in the leaves, etc.
Now I am inspired after reading thro’ your blog. Keep up your good work.
I live in Chennai. I do not know where to get these pot mix. Please let me know if you have any info. on this. Also any of the blog readers could help me.
Is it possible to get small quantity for 2 or 3 pots? Thanks for help.
Arul

Thanks. You can make your own basic potting mix quite easily. Just mix red soil + sand + compost or manure in equal proportion. Its as simple as that. I am not too sure where in chennai you might get ready made potting mix. Check with Chandramouli of http://inartliesmyheart.blogspot.com/ . He might be able to help you. He has an eye for gardening materials in chennai :).

I’m more than happy to come across your site. I’m stunned by the amount
of information that it presents.
I’ll soon come up with many doubts, queries, etc. Hope you guys are there to help me out.
By then i’ll read your previous blogs.

I too live in Bangalore and I am fascinated by your blog…haven’t stopped reading it for the past 3 hours…I have a terrace garden and love to potter around. Right now am trying to find large cement pots to grow my bougainvillea…i want a bougainvillea profusion and I believe the pot size matters a lot. What size of pot would u suggest for one plant and where can i get really large cement pots in Bangalore. Also, when is your next gardening workshop – i def want to be there!

Inspired by your blog,I too started thinking of vegetable garden. We went and bought some plants (roses and jasmine) and seeds (spinach, chilli, okra). I replanted the roses and jasmines into new pots and I use only the red soil (didnt use sand or compost) in the pot yesterday. Do I need to put some fertilizers this point in time? And for seed starting, where can I get the soilless starting mix in Bangalore. I live near KR Puram. Thanks Sheeja

Hi to all
we just bought a flat ( oof atlast ) and we were blessed with 400 SFT of open space. yesterday we bought the pots and other material . today i landed on this blog.. i missed it by a day.. would like to utilise all the inputs to start off with some flowers and some vegetables on this terrace..
Raghu

Hi GG,
IT WAS GREAT FINDING UR BLOG.I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF STARTING A VEGETABLE GARDEN IN MY BALCONY BUT NEVER HAD THE COURAGE OR RATHER INITIATIVE OF STARTING IT BUT AFTER JUST COMING ACROSS ON UR BLOG I BEEN GREATLY MOTIVATED TO DO SO AGAIN BECAUSE I HAVE MANY TIMES BEFORE HV GOT PLANTS FRM NURSERIES BUT AFTER SOME MONTHS THEY ALL DIE OR GET INFECTED SO NOW I WANNA START GARDENING BACK AFTER READING UR INFORMATIVE BLOGS.THANX FOR THIS SITE WHICH I KNW WILL REALLY HELP ME IN THE LONG RUN.

The reason why plants die and wither away after we buy it from the nursery is that we dont take care of the plants that well like the nursery men do. the plants are fed properly with nutrients and pesticides to prevent them from insects and diseaeses.

I purchased vegetable seeds ( Knolkhol, Brinjal and Cucumber ) from Lal Bhagh. They did not Cocopeat in stock and were not sure when this will come either. The person in the counter did not know that Perlite was. They did not have Vermiculate. I want to use soil less pot mix. Please can you let me know where in Bangalore I can get Cocopeat. And how much approximately it costs.

Very informative blog for people like me who want to start green roof garden. I am finishing my house construction. looking to start roof garden in Hyderabad. Please provide me the places to get things for it in Hyderabad.

Hi Geekgardener,
Thanks for all the info in this blog. I am just starting a organic terrace garden in South Bangalore. Went to Lalbagh today and got organic seeds and pesticide. Just wanted to mention for other readers that Lalbagh has a co-op where non-organic and hybrid seeds are sold. They do have organic pesticides and manure, though. There is a seperate store right inside the double road entrance where organic seeds are available. It is called Jaivik Mall. They sell organic products and produce.

Wanted to know about the load bearing capacity of the terrace. Normally, when we build house, we would not have taken these into consideration. Now if I use my full terrace for gardening with whole lot of sand, soil etc., will it have any problem? Please let me know.

I have been looking around for Chakota greens seeds around my locality in Marathalli / Sarjapur Road. Could please help me get them or direct me to a store that has them. I will be very grateful 🙂
Sathya

Hi GG,
I find your blog very useful and a great help for a beginner like me. We have a lot of place for gardening. Recently we grew tomatoes the plants grew well but I find them withering and tomatoes are withering prematurely.. what can be the reason??

The blog very very useful. Thank you so much for the information. I have been thinking to plant vegetables in my garden but didnt had info on where to buy seeds, manures.. Now, with this info, immediately i will start and post questions/doubts I get. Thank you so much again.

Appreciate your blog for writing about the ABCs of gardening. Had been to the store a couple of times and started a veg garden in my balcony using cocopeat and vermicompost.The seeds have sprouted well within less time.
Can you detail when exactly do the plants need neem spray and panchagavya? Is it appropriate to use panchagavya for all plants irrespective of the type?
–tapers like carrots and radish,spinach,tomatoes,ochra,chilly.Any other nutrient additions you would suggest?

I am glad to have come across your blog which is very informative and useful. I am planning a vegetable garden in my balcony. I stay in a place called Nagarbhavi. Can you please suggest any reputed stores like yours where i can purchase seeds, soil less medium, and other gardening tools in Bangalore west like Vijayanagar, Rajajinagar, Chandra layout, Basweshwarnagar etc.

Hi GG
Wonderful blog and enthusiasm. I had some parwal plants bought all the way from Bihar, but they died when cement and molten welding iron fell on them from the neighbour’s house. I’m constructing a new home with small garden spaces. The parwal is a sort of small gourd with stripes, and pretty expensive in Bangalore. These grow from cuttings. Can I find any in Bangalore? And what about loquat? I have a couple of seedlings growing from seeds but they don’t look healthy. Just an inch tall at the moment and looking quite dry. Any help much appreciated. A final question – is “DIP” good for plants? All these nurseries say they use it to make plants flower.

I am crazy about gardening from childhood. I was born and brought up in Coimbatore, where in our house there we did not have enough space to grow plants. I saw a passion fruit climber in my neighborhood there and from that time I wanted to grow a passion fruit climber.

Now I am married and I am in Bangalore, BEL Colony. Here space is there but a big mango tree has spread its roots everywhere and so no plants grow on the ground. I am try my interest in pots.

Please say whether passion fruit can be gown in pots and where the seeds/grafts will be available.

I saw your mails and was very much impressed. I had enquired about these passion fruit seeds to many people, but no one was able to give any useful inforation. If you know a proper source from where we can get the seeds/grafts, please mail me.

Also, please add my id to your list and share all the information regarding gardening and your workshops conducted, so that I would like to attend all your workshops.

Hi GG… I have just recently started gardening after I moved in to my new home….I missed the previous sessions of Oota From Your Thota…..I eagerly waiting from the next session….considering the great response you received…do you plan of conducting one this year….?

I just happened to see your block, very informative, i have plain terrace and i live in bangalore,i wnt to utilise for terrace gardening, i need basic info about gardening and to start with and how much it would cost, please enlighten me, i am greatful to you.